Rebounds & Reunions (4/12)
July
Lemon couldn’t stop the nostalgic smile spreading across her face as she took the lid off the first box of photographs. She reached inside and pulled out an envelope, sliding the contents out into her hand.
“Oh my God,” she breathed. “It’s the talent show from 7th grade. What did I do? Oh, yes. A scene from Steel Magnolias.”
Wade snickered. “I skipped that day.”
“Not just that day, as I recall,” Lemon pointed out, and Wade shrugged.
“Here’s the inventory,” Wade said to change the subject. “Looks like this box has fifth through eighth grades. So it’s gonna be a lot of braces and bad hair.”
“Remember Laura’s perm?”
“How could I forget?”
Lemon laughed in agreement. She leaned over and opened the next box. “This one’s…JV and varsity football games.”
“Oooh, cheerleaders,” Wade observed, abandoning the pictures he was looking at and moving over to the other box.
“You’re such a pig.”
“Never claimed otherwise,” Wade pointed out, mostly focused on the pictures he was flipping through. “So what are you gonna do with these anyway?”
“Um...” Lemon murmured, shuffling over on her knees to the next box. “Blow them all up and kind of make big collages for the wall decorations. Part timeline, part a game of ‘how many people can you recognize?’”
“All humiliation,” Wade added, grimacing at a picture.
“Oh don’t be so negative! This is fun!”
Wade put the pictures back in the box and focused on Lemon. “Why do you care about these things so much? The reunion and all your little activities. It just seems like way too much effort.”
“Well, Wade, until recently you never really cared much about anything, so I can see why you wouldn’t understand.”
Wade bit his tongue for a moment and then sighed. “So, explain it to me.”
“It’s our past,” Lemon stressed, turning to look at Wade. “Our whole lives. Everything that made us into the people we are today. Why shouldn’t we remember it and honor it?”
“Yeah, well. Nothing about any of this,” Wade gestured at the boxes of pictures, “has anything to do with my life right now. It made me who I was a year ago and as you just pointed out, I’m not that person anymore. In fact, I’m trying very hard not to be the person that my past says I should be, and I don’t want a night of reminiscing about it.”
“Well, how about a night of free food and alcohol?” Lemon asked with an exaggerated smile.
“That,” Wade replied, pointing at her in emphasis, “I’ll take.”
Neither one spoke for a moment as they continued to look through the boxes of photographs, the silence eventually changing from slightly awkward and strained to comfortable again. Lemon occasionally made notes in her notebook and finally she stopped, inhaling in determination.
“You know, I hate her but I have to thank her for the changes she brought about in you. I’m so excited to see you becoming the person I always knew you could be.”
Wade stared at her for a moment and then looked away with a slight shake of her head. “It’s not just her.”
“I know. But she’s part of it.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“She’s a fool for not appreciating it.” A slow smile started to form on Lemon’s face. “Which is why - ”
“Oh God, not this again,” Wade groaned.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s a dumb idea!”
“It is not! It’s foolproof!” Lemon emphasized her statement with clenched fists.
“Making them jealous so they break up and we get to swoop in?”
Lemon hesitated for a fraction of a second. “Something like that!”
Wade shook his head. “It’s not going to work.”
“Yes, it will!”
“You’re certifiable.”
**
Lemon hummed to herself as she went through yet more pictures later that night. She sorted them into piles of which ones to copy and which ones to file back in the appropriate boxes. Mostly she tried not to think about all the ones she came across featuring her smiling happily while standing next to George.
“Hi baby,” Brick said, walking into the room.
“Daddy!” Lemon welcomed him, grateful for the distraction. She put the pictures on the coffee table and gave him her full attention. “How was your day?”
“Oh, just fine, sweetie,” her father answered. He sat next to her, dropping one arm around her shoulders. “What are you working on?”
“Oh, I’m starting planning for the reunion.”
“My God,” Brick lamented, running a hand down his face, “Has it been 13 years already?”
“Mmm,” Lemon nodded sympathetically. “Can you believe it?”
“Not at all.” He leaned forward and picked the pile of photographs up from the table. Glancing through them, he added, “Are you doing this all by yourself? None of your friends are helping?”
“Not yet,” Lemon replied. She shifted nervously before adding, “That is, Wade Kinsella’s helped me a bit.”
Brick froze and Lemon tried not to react.
“You know, Addy said something to me the other day,” Brick started slowly. “And I didn’t believe her.”
“What’s that, Daddy?”
“That you and Wade were…”
Lemon didn’t answer, trying to figure out if she should tell him the truth or stick to her plan. If it was going to work, everyone needed to believe it. Her hesitation was enough of an answer, it turned out.
“Lemon Lime, this isn’t like you.”
“What isn’t?”
“Honey, Wade is - I know you’re hurting right now. But he’s not the kind of guy you’re going to be happy with.”
“I’m not looking to marry him, Daddy,” Lemon objected with a nervous laugh. “We’re just…being friendly. Like old times.”
“He was never a good influence on you,” Brick stated. “And he’s…”
“He’s what, Daddy?” Lemon asked, starting to feel more offended for her friend. “Trouble? Poor? The son of the town drunk? Uneducated? What?”
“He’s got a reputation,” Brick reminded her. “When it comes to women.”
“Yes, well.” Lemon couldn’t reasonably deny that. “He’s different now. I don’t expect you to believe me, because you’ve never liked him, not since the incident.”
“Oh, that incident where the three of you got detention for a week, you mean?”
“Yes! And it’s time you learned the truth. It was my idea. I was the mastermind behind it all.”
Brick turned to stare at her, and Lemon nodded.
“Behind pretty much everything that we did and the boys took the blame for. If anything, I’m a bad influence on him.”
Brick sighed and shook his head. “Be that as it may, darling, you’re an adult now. I want you to be happy, and I can’t see it lasting with him.”
“It probably won’t,” Lemon easily agreed. “But Daddy, I could do a whole lot worse. He’ll probably never win the MOTY, but he is one of the most decent men in this town.”
More decent than certain hypocritical men who told women in wedding gowns they were in love with someone else, at any rate.
**
Zoe sighed, running a hand through her hair and arching her back in a stretch as she walked up to her house. It had been a long day at work, between the usual patient concerns and Addy’s never-ending commentary on the gossip of the town. She supposed she should be thankful that the scandal of her and George had been, temporarily at least, taken over by the shock of Wade and Lemon’s dalliance.
And then work was followed by an early dinner with George that was just…Zoe couldn’t figure out why things were still so strange between them. They were finally together, but everything still seemed so - their interactions were more hesitant than ever. After all the indications, all of Zoe’s hopes, that they would be so good together… And she couldn’t decide if the tension was because of the circumstances of how they got together and whatever was going on between Wade and Lemon now or if they would have faced these problems regardless. She couldn’t predict if they’d get past this start of their relationship and get into a groove. Or, as a small voice niggled in the back of her mind, she really wanted to, after all.
She kind of hated Wade more than ever now.
“Hey Doc!”
Speak of the devil. Zoe faced Wade’s place where he was apparently just coming home too. Zoe wondered if he had been out with Lemon and what they had done and if he kissed her with as much urgency and passion as he had kissed Zoe.
“Hi Wade,” she replied, grateful for the distance so he couldn’t see her face. She wasn’t entirely sure she could maintain her composure right now. Mostly she was just happy he spoke to her first after so long. “Have a good day?”
“Yeah, you?”
“Great!” she lied.
There was a long moment of silence, reminding Zoe again how much she missed her friend, and wondering how much blame she really deserved for the end of everything between them. Frankly, she was still kind of angry that Wade hadn’t even tried, hadn’t said anything when he found out the wedding was off, had just looked at Zoe and walked out Lavon’s kitchen.
Maybe he had been telling the truth and it really was nothing but lust. He got her out of his system, only to get himself stuck in Zoe’s.
“Well, ‘night,” Wade called.
“Don’t play your music too loud,” Zoe shouted back, trying to sound playful but ending up somewhere in the vicinity of scolding. She shook her head quickly and searched for a way to change that.
“Yeah, OK.” Wade nodded and turned inside before she could say anything more.
Zoe sighed.
Chapter Five